A Little About My Job

Suffering from a compete lack of inspiration at the moment. Perhaps I should describe my job. Tomorrow is actually my last day for the summer so it’s a little late, but whatever. I went into the local state forestry office looking for a job fighting wild fire. I wanted to be part of one of the firefighting crews up here. It just happened that May was too late in the year to get into one of the classes. After a discussion with the very helpful administrator at the front desk, I was set up with a chance to take a dispatching class. Not what I wanted, but I was assured it was a job that was in demand and paid well. I was a little uneasy when I found out that I was the only person in the class who was not already employed. When I brought up the concern, I was quickly assured the office in Palmer would have no problem finding a job for me. This in fact proved true. After finishing the class and submitting an application, I was called and asked to come and work. No interview, just strait to work. Works for me.

I went into a 12+ hour a day job, working seven days a week. This was a huge improvement over the job I had as an electrician. My company wasn’t letting us work overtime, and they paid several dollars less an hour. My job consisted of keeping folks updated with current information (resources, weather, etc.) and dispatching local fire resources in Palmer. This dispatching is like a simpler version of 911. We take calls and send fire trucks or helicopters to fight the fires. We keep track of what everyone does and get them whatever they want. After a month or so of doing this, I moved over to work with our aircraft. Again I was working with a radio, this time talking to planes flying all types of missions. Most flying was moving people or supplies. We also had air tankers that were dispatched from our office. This is the fun part of the job, making the big DC-6 tanker fly away.

I left all that glory behind 24 days ago. I came to Fairbanks to work in a logistics office. Out of this office I move people all over the state and country. Different areas send requests for people to fill whatever position they have open, and I find them the people they need. I have a pool that consist of the entire state of Alaska, and extends into the entire US via a central office in Idaho. There’s no radio here, just the computer, a fax machine, and the phone. These are the tools of my job. Once I have located the person needed to fill the position, it is my job to make whatever arraignments are required to get them where they’re going. This usually consists of a phone call to the travel agent.

Tomorrow will be my last day in this position. I head back to school and will hopefully return to my office in Palmer when school is out. I also hope to have the chance to work in my electrician job on my days off, like I did this year. We’ll see if they want to give me the work; it makes for a long summer, but a profitable one.

Brandon